Gilliam County Court approves operations grants

The Gilliam County Court surprised attendees at the July 17 court session in Arlington by awarding grant requests in full.

During the June 26 court session, members of the Gilliam County Grants Committee recommended to partially fund operations grants to several non-profit organizations and the South Gilliam Co. Health District.

The Gilliam Co. Operations Grant is one of several special grants available to non-profit organizations, special districts, and schools in the county.

The Condon Early Learning Center, Summit Springs Village, Arlington Community Childcare, and the South Gilliam Health District had been awarded the grant in previous years. The funding is significant for these entities, which provide services in childcare, healthcare, and elder care.

With several supporters in attendance ready to speak about the proposed funding cuts, the Grants Committee reversed course and modified its recommendations to the court.

Instead of partially funding the requests, the Grants Committee recommended to fund the three non-profits and the health district fully.

The Gilliam Co. Operations Grant makes $1 million available each year to qualifying entities. This excludes businesses or faith-based institutions.

The Condon Early Learning Center requested $450,000 to fully fund its staff for the current fiscal year. Initially, the Grants Committee had recommended awarding $350,000.

The Condon ELC has an annual operating budget of $829,580. Over the past year, the Condon ELC has worked to scale up its staffing, as was mandated in the previous Operations Grant award from 2023. The Condon ELC has 15 staff, which includes two administrators, 11 teachers, a cook, and a custodian.

The Arlington Community Childcare center requested $270,000 and was awarded $250,000. Last year, Arlington Community Childcare (known as Honkers Nest at the time) had been awarded funds but had not accessed them. The childcare center closed several moths ago due to a finding from state regulators. Now, a new group of leaders has emerged to help take the organization forward.

In attendance was Margaret Atkins, a childcare provider who has eight years of experience in the childcare industry.

Margaret said that she had lived in Heppner but had decided to leave due to an absence of childcare in the community. Atkins also said that a board of directors had been created and that they were renaming the organization as Arlington Community Childcare. The non-profit is expecting to get licensure status finalized in the near future.

The court was clearly in favor of these developments and expressed their desire to help, as did several local Arlington residents.

Summit Springs Village, a non-profit retirement community in Condon, had requested $150,000 from the Gilliam Co. Operations Grant. Summit Springs has an annual operating budget of $1.262 million.

For several years, Summit Springs has requested this amount of support. Initially, the grants committee recommended only funding $75,000. But after reviewing this request, the grants committee recommended to fund the retirement community in full.

The South Gilliam Health District was also fully funded. The district requested $150,000 to help support its $1.445 million annual operating budget.

The health district houses the Gilliam County Public Health District, and offers health services and well-being services at the Condon center.

Many of the people in attendance were worried that funding would be cut this year and that services in these institutions would also diminish.

Several people who offered public comment changed their prepared statements and thanked the court.

Judge Cris Patnode said that the services provided by the organizations were important to the county. She pushed the organizations to seek other funding and said that the non-profits should operate like businesses.

In other news, Grant Wilkins was sworn in as Gilliam Co. Commissioner at the budget meeting, prior to the court session. Wilkins was appointed to the court after winning the primary election in May.

Wilkins said that he had worked with his employer, Portland General Electric, to modify his schedule so that he could fulfill his duties as county commissioner.

The court also discussed cyber security and the need to update its systems.

Radcomp – a cyber security firm, provided a quote for the services, which was accepted by the court.

A representative for the company said that the equipment in the courthouse was at an end-of-life stage and is in need of immediate replacement.